Roving Planet Lands $9.5M in First Institutional Round
by Giada Cardoletti
January 6, 2004
Six months after launching its flagship product, Roving Planet, a provider of management and control software for wireless LANs, said it raised a $9.5-million Series C, its first institutional round.
Appian Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson co-led the round. Other investors included Wolf Ventures and Cardinal Ventures. The investment represents Colorado's eighth largest VC investment in 2003, according to figures from the Colorado Venture Association. Cascadia Capital was the investment bank representing Roving Planet in this transaction.
Roving Planet said it would use the funds to expand its global reach, service its growing customer base, and further enhance its WLAN management platform, Central Site Director.
The round will enable the three-year-old company to expand in Europe and Asia Pacific, said Harry Simpson, senior vice president of marketing and business development. Mr. Simpson described Roving Planet as fiscally conservative. "Everything we have done today we did it with only $4 million," Mr. Simpson said.
The company began shipping Central Site Director in June, landing the University of Wyoming as its first customer and developing 20 more clients in less than six months.
During that time, Roving reported about $5 million in revenues, Mr. Simpson said. The company is expected to more than double that number in the first half of 2004, according to Mr. Simpson. Founded in August 2000, the company employs 20 and is expected to reach break-even in the third quarter of 2004.
The funding follows a significant year of growth for the Boulder, Colo.-based company, which has deployed its product in a variety of enterprise environments including LaGuardia International Airport and publicly traded manufacturing company, Rockford Corporation.
Central Site Director is the only network available on the market to deliver a single WLAN platform to address security and management, with an open architecture, Mr. Simpson said.
Launched in 2000 by three University of Colorado MBA students, Roving Planet was born from a business competition at the university. Shortly thereafter the company entered the market determined to make a name for itself in the development of wireless airport check-in devices. But the focus swiftly changed as soon as it became apparent that the networks weren't mature enough to manage wireless applications. That's when the company decided to focus on the larger problem, making its way into a lucrative market with plenty of room for competition, Mr. Simpson said.
Two of the founders, Kaj Gronholm, senior vice president of corporate development, and Seth Goldhammer, director of system engineering remain with the company.
Greg Mesch, the company's CEO, learned about Roving Planet at an investors' meeting in Boulder, when the founders presented their business plans to early-stage investors. Mr. Mesch, 43, has personally invested in the company's Series A and Series B funding rounds. After joining the board of directors following the Series A round, Mr. Mesch abandoned his consulting role at the company to take on the chief executive officer position. He replaced Mr. Gronholm, who now serves as vice president of corporate development. Mr. Mesch's professional experiences include serving as chief operations officer at Versatel, a publicly traded company where he was an original investor, and chief operating officer at ESAT Telecomm.
Roving Planet raised $3.1-million in its Series A and B rounds and received $500,000 in its seed round from Colorado Venture Management, an angel investor.